A year in the making
On July 29, eight members of the Hawks mountaineering club stood on a 5,500-meter summit in the Andes, the first international expedition in the club's 11-year history. All eight reached the top, along with two volunteer guides and a faculty adviser.
The team spent a year preparing. Members trained on stairs in the Recreation Center three times a week, made winter practice climbs with the Outdoor Club in the Ridgeback range and learned glacier travel and crevasse rescue from a guiding company.
The team spent 18 days in the mountains, including a week of acclimatization hikes before the summit attempt.
Nobody on the team had been higher than 4,000 meters before this. We went slowly, we turned around once for weather, and we all came home. That's a successful expedition.
Paying for the trip
The trip cost about $3,800 per person. Club members raised about half through a crowdfunding page, a gear swap and a talk at the Mountain Film Festival. Recreation and Club Sports covered group equipment, and the Global Programs Office provided travel grants for three students receiving need-based aid.
Faculty adviser Dr. Tessa Morgan, whose research focuses on altitude sickness, tracked the team's oxygen levels and symptoms each day as part of a pilot for her lab's next study. The club will present a slideshow of the trip on September 30 in the Student Union. Details are on the mountaineering club page.
The climb
From training in the Ridgeback range to the summit.
